By Matthew Ball, Sports Editor
Reynolds football kicked off its season last Friday against East Forsyth. While the 63-14 final score wasn’t a positive for the Demons, the coaches and players certainly see promise in their speedy offensive backfield. Senior Pat Harrison ran for an aggressive 14-yard touchdown in the second quarter and added an electric 77-yard scoring run in the fourth.
Harrison led the Demons with six carries for 94 yards. RJR relied solely on its running backs throughout the game and finished with only one pass attempt. Head coach Scott Saalweachter said running was the gameplan from the start.
“Going into this season, we wanted to control the time of possession for the game. We did Friday night, but East can score so quickly,” Saalweachter said. “As we were watching film from Friday’s game, there are some great positives to work with and if we correct a few minor details, we will be fine.”
This Friday, the Demons face the Chase Trojans at Deaton-Thompson Stadium. The Trojans lost their first home game against Newton-Conover by a score of 29-0. Chase, located in Forest City west of Charlotte, will travel more than two hours for this nonconference game. The 2-A school plays in the South Mountain Athletic Conference and went 6-5 last season.
Saalweachter and staff are confident about Friday’s game against the Trojans, who offensively are a triple-option team that, like Reynolds, loves to run the ball.
“We really appreciate the support of the fans and the Rowdies being there (last Friday) night,” Saalweachter said. “Hopefully, we will have a big crowd for (this Friday) night’s game.”
The Demons will honor former standout Anthony Levine with a framed jersey during a halftime ceremony. Levine currently is with the Baltimore Ravens and earned two Super Bowl rings in his first two years in the NFL. (For more on Levine, read this story from the Pine Whispers archives: Levine prepping for Super Bowl trip)
Even though the Demons and Trojans both love to run the ball, Saalweachter said his team didn’t plan on not having any yardage through the air against East.
“We actually called quite a few passing plays, but due to quarterback scrambles and breakdowns in protection, it didn’t appear we did,” Saalweachter said. “We want to throw the ball, but the beauty of this offense, you don’t throw until the defense just absolutely stops the running game.”
The plan offensively is to get about 3 or 4 yards per carry so that the team can “move the chains and keep the other team’s offense off the field” to prevent them from scoring. If that happens Friday night, the Demons can get an early victory after suffering through an 0-5 start last season.
